Engineering Degree Online | Paying off your Student Loans

Posted by bposton on November 13th, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

So let’s say you have a rich uncle and you’ll have no loans to pay off after you graduate…

Well you can stop reading now, if you wish (you lucky dog) :-)

For the rest of us, how to pay off our student loans is a big deal.

According to a recent study by the U.S. Department of Education, 26 percent of college graduates borrow at least $25,000 to pay for their college educations.

So if you see that you’re going to graduate with a large amount of  debt, you’d be wise to take some time and sort of “map out” a strategy for paying it back as quickly as possible.

Here are some tips to consider from American Education Services, a national financial aid services organization:

Consolidate. Consolidating your loans can reduce your monthly payments and maybe even lower your interest rate. But You need to look into this option as soon as possible to lock in a low interest rate. When you consolidate, you’ll get just one bill per month, which makes it easier to keep track of your payments.

If possible, make payments during your six-month grace period. This is a great way to save money on your subsidized loans because any payments you make will be applied directly to the principal balance. This lowers the amount of interest you will owe after the grace period expires. Plus, you’ll be able to pay off your loan months earlier than you expected.

Use direct debit to help you pay your loans on time every month. Direct debit is a free, automatic payment service for borrowers who prefer to make their loan payments electronically. If you use this service, you also may qualify for an interest rate reduction after a specified number of on-time payments.

Make everyday expenses count toward repayment of your loans. When you join Upromise, participating merchants will contribute a portion of what you spend with them to your Upromise account, which you can use to help pay off your loans.

AES has a web site called youcandealwithit.com, designed to help college students and graduates become financially responsible.

Hope that helps

Ben

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engineering degree online : The newest online schools

Posted by bposton on October 31st, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

First of all - Happy Halloween!! I hope you’ll be a good little ghost tonight and get lots of candy :-)  

I’m going to take a little time today to share with you some of my research from the October US News and World Report University and College rankings. That way, you’ll get an idea of how they measured the online schools that the focused on in this issue.

In this post, I’m listing the top 20 newest schools. Each school is listed below based on year they began offering online classes. Some of these are pretty well know, such as SMU and South Carolina. Other’s…well at least I have never heard of some of them.

So here they are - drumroll please :-) …

Briar Cliff University (IA) 2006

Edison State Community College (OH) 2006

Pima County Community College District (AZ) 2006

Southern Methodist University (TX) 2006

St. Louis Community College (MO) 2006

Toccoa Falls College (GA) 2006

University of Mississippi (MS) 2006

Chatham College (PA) 2005

Cleary University (MI) 2005

Culver-Stockton College (MO) 2005

Edgecombe Community College (NC) 2005

Mohawk Valley Community College (NY) 2005

Northern Illinois University (IL) 2005

Research College of Nursing (MO) 2005

Rutgers–New Brunswick (NJ) 2005

SUNY–Plattsburgh (NY) 2005

Southern Oregon University (OR) 2005

Spartanburg Technical College (SC) 2005

St. Clair County Community College (MI) 2005

St. Edward’s University (TX) 2005

St. Vincent’s College (CT) 2005

Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management (AZ) 2005

Triton College (IL) 2005

University of Mary (ND) 2005

University of South Carolina–Columbia (SC) 2005

University of Texas Health Science Center–San Antonio (TX) 2005

York Technical College (SC) 2005

Ben

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What do you want to do with your education?

Posted by bposton on October 16th, 2006 — Posted in engineering degree online

Do you want to increase your pay? Or do you find yourself at a “career crossroads”?

Or are you as far as you can go in your career with your current skills?

Not too long ago, you had to quit your job and go back to school to get ahead, but not anymore. 

Today it’s possible to get a Bachelor’s, Master’s or even Ph.D. degrees without ever setting foot in a classroom.

Theres an organization I found out about called Sloan Consortium. It was created to help colleges and other “learning organizations” start and improve their online degree programs.

Anyway, according to the Sloan Consortium, almost two-thirds of all the schools that offer classroom education now also offer courses online as well.

And get this, last year nearly two million students were enrolled in an online course of some kind.

So you’re not alone - there’s been a lot of progress in online education and the standard or traditional colleges have found out that there’s a market out there, so now (finally) they’re starting to offer what we need.

Ben
 

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